I Can Only Take So Much!
by Twintix
Summary: Being fed up with the constant abuse she gets at Eientei, Reisen finally runs away. Accompanied by a curious eagle, a mischiveous wasp and a bored human, she strolls through Gensokyo. What shenanigans will occur? Rated T for language. Contains OC's.
1. Chapter 1: That's it, Master!

**I Can Only Take So much!**

_Peels he-Uh, I mean, Twix here!_

_So, yeah, my third Touhou-story. I kinda wrote it on a whim. I'll work on it alongside with The Kappa and the Wolf. Because I can. Yeah...Basically, if I get ideas for TkatW, I'll write a chapter of that, and if I have an idea for this, I'll write a chapter for this. That way, it won't distract me too much from doing homework. (Though I'll probably be distracted by something else anyway...)_

_Ok. This time, I'm focusing on Reisen, since I get ideas that won't leave sometimes, and this happened to be one of them. Now, I'm partly basing this on some of the treatment Reisen gets in IotM & IotE, but I'm not too sure about how canon that series is. (I sorta want my fics to be as close to canon Touhou as possible, if you've noticed .3.) But there's at least a little degree of credibility to it, based on SaBND, so that'll do. _

_I also wanted to introduce a few of my OC's. I actually have a crapload of OC's, but I can't fit them all into one story without it being redundant, now can I? And Lame Title Syndrome stuck again..._

_Gah, this introduction is too long! I explained too much! Anyway, I hope you enjoy._

**DISCLAIMER:** _Touhou Project and the majority of the characters that appear in this fanfic belong to Shanghai Alice/ZUN._

**Chapter 1: That's it, Master!**

"Tired...So tired of it...No end to it! Ugh!"

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Eientei. The unusual house in the Bamboo Forest of Lost, and the home of the banished moon princess, Kaguya, and her friend Eirin. This is also the home of several youkai rabbits. Among them, Tewi Inaba, the mischevious Earth Rabbit, and Reisen Udongein Inaba, the more serious Moon Rabbit.

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One afternoon, Reisen wandered through the halls of Eientei, rubbing the back of her head. She felt nauseous and drowzy, and she had a severe headache. Probably a side effect from the new medicine Eirin had decided to try out on her. By hiding it in her lunch, of course.

Reisen was actually Eirin's student, but sometimes she was also used as a test subject for all kinds of weird medicines: Sometimes as punishment, and sometimes just for the heck of it. Some medicines were just fine, like energy boosts and pills against sore throats, but most of them had nasty side effects. Reisen remembered one time when her ears got all swollen and another time when she got paralyzed for a few hours. What an opportunity the others had for pranking her. And how they used that opportunity to their hearts' content!

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Despite her drowziness, Reisen found herself thinking while staggering towards Eirin's study. She thought about her redundant and unfair her life could be sometimes. Whenever she wasn't working hard or being punished by Eirin, she was the subject of fellow rabbit Tewi's numerous pranks. They could range from the harmless "Anko-In-Hand-And-Tickle-Nose-With-Feather-While-Sleeping" to the more sadistic "Nails-on-Chair" or "Talk-Bad-About-Master-In-Reisen's-Voice".

Reisen had noticed for a while that she was tired of this life. Every day felt the same: Work; Punishment; Prank; Work; Punishment; Prank; Work; Punishment; Prank; Being punished for Tewi's prank. Rinse and repeat for the next day.

Neither did it help that she was bacially the only one working: Tewi was rarely following Reisen's orders and was always finding excuses for not lifting a finger, and she could _still_ be bored enough to pull her pranks. Also, since the Earth Rabbits obeyed her, they rarely worked, as well, mostly goofing off or just laying around.

OK, saying _everyday _was like thatperhaps was exaggerating a bit, but to Reisen, this was exactly what it felt like sometimes.

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"_Why do they treat me like this?_" She thought. "_Do they think that they can treat me however they like in return for hiding me here? I should be grateful to them for helping me, but this treatment..._"

She still had bruises from yesterday's punishment. As her mind kept spinning around the subject, another thought struck her.

"_And why isn't Tewi ever punished? She rarely does anything at all. And if__** I**__ can't make her, shouldn't it be Master's or Your Highness's responsibility to make sure that she does something?_"

Well, "struck" may not have been the correct term; Reisen had thought about that before, and she already had a theory.

"_Well, I guess she's just everyone's little favorite. That's the benefit of being the Symbol of Good Fortune, probably...But I can't help but feel a little bit discriminated._"

Sighing, she opened the door and entered Eirin's study. As expected, her master was waiting for her.

"Welcome back from lunch, Udonge." She greeted the dizzy rabbit. "Now, let's get back to work, shall we? I need you to take these medicines and these notes to the storehouse, if you could be so kind."

The last part was just added to make the order sound more polite. She pointed to a few jars filled with pills, powders and liquids. Next to them were a pile of small pieces of paper. Reisen blinked and stared at the jars. She really had to focuse now.

"Understood, Master." She responded, picked the jars up and left the study.

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If Eirin actually had _noticed _Reisen's condition is hard to say, but to assign a woozy rabbit with a task of carrying things from one place to another could imply two things; Either that she hadn't noticed the effects at all, or that she had noticed them, but was curious at how well Reisen could chores while the effect was still working.

Either way, a wobbly rabbit, carrying a bunch of jars and important papers through a corridor: The perfect subject for a prank, right?

And sure enough, behind a corner, the mischiveous Earth Rabbit was lurking. Her eyes were gleaming and she had a huge grin on her lips. Waiting for her victim to come closer...

"Now!" She exclaimed and pulled a rope.

Reisen never suspected the danger, and with her hands full, she had no means of defending herself.

From above, a heavy bucket fell down. It smacked Reisen in the back of her head, forcing her to take a few steps forward. And here was stage 2 of Tewi's latest prank: A thin wire across the opening, just in ankle height. Needless to say, the moon rabbit walked right into it, making her finally lose her balance and thrust her arms forward. Unforunately, this made her drop all the jars she was holding. The doom was inevitable.

"**THUD!**"

"**CRASH!**"

A loud sound of Reisen and the jars hitting the floor: A thud from Reisen, and a crash from the jars. There she layed, her arms spread forward and a sea of spilled medicine in front of her. Distressed, she looked at the mess of liquid and smashed glass. Behind the corner, Tewi was nearly choking on her own laughter. Reisen trembled a little, and then realised that ner dizziness and her headache was gone. The side effects had stopped at this moment. How convinient...

Suddenly, she felt a threatening aura from behind her. Slowly, she turned around.

"Udonge..." Eirin said in a low, but threatening voice. The energy that came from her made it look like she was on fire.

Reisen's trembling got more intense.

"Master..." She squealed, sensing the danger. "I...was being..."

"No excuses!" Eirin roared. "I can't even entrust you with carrying things! You'll be punished good for this!"

She roughly grabbed Reisen's jacket collar and dragged the poor moon rabbit with her towards the study.

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Oh, how intense the pain was! Eirin did not hold back this time when punishing Reisen.

But somehow, somehing was different: Reisen felt different. Instead of just the pain, a dark emotion started to rise from her stomach, spreading throughout her body before it reached her head.

That's when she snapped. She had reached her limit.

She raised one hand, blocking a punch from the furious genious. The surprised Lunarian watched as the rabbit slowly stood up, panting and shaking.

"Hah...A neverending cycle, huh...Working hard, recieving punishment. It just goes on." Reisen's voice sounded unusually calm, but in a very creepy way. "And the odd thing; That sadistic little Earth Rabbit can get away with anything from pranks to slacking off, but if _**I**_ mess up once, I get such punishment that I can barely stand for five days? You think you can treat however the **HELL** you feel like because you're keeping me here?"

As she kept speaking, her voice grew louder and louder. She grabbed a small jar of pills and squeezed it so hard that her knuckles whitened.

Eirin watched the rabbit in awe. She had never sensed this kind of energy from Reisen before. And when the rabbit looked up, Eirin also noted that she had never seen Reisen this angry before. The normally calm Reisen was now like a pure inferno of bottled up fury. It was almost scary.

"**I'VE HAD IT!**" Reisen yelled and threw the jar in the floor, crushing it. "THAT! IS! IT, MASTER! I'M FED UP WITH THIS CONSTANT TREATMENT! I'M LEAVING!"

Declaring this, the furious youkai pulled the door open and ran off through the corridors. Nearly running over Kaguya, who had come to see what the ruckus was about, out through the door, slamming it shut behind her.

"Udonge! Get back here, now!" Eirin yelled, running down the corridor.

"Eirin, what in the world-"

"Udonge started to spout nonsense and just ran off!" Eirin sighed and turned to Tewi. "Inaba, can you go and get her?"

"Understood, Master!" Tewi cheerfully exclaimed, having apparently not noticed the air around Reisen, and went out of the door after her fellow rabbit.

If she had only knew that one of the reasons that Eirin had sent her out was that a part of her really didn't want to follow Reisen. Not now. Not after that.

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Since Tewi had lived in the bamboo forest for longer than she could remember, she knew it like the back of her hand. Soon, she had caught up to Reisen.

"Reisen, Reisen~" She hummed. "Master ordered you to come back now~"

She suddenly froze in her track. Not until now, she sensed that something was not like it usually was. Actually, the energy that emitted from Reisen didn't feel like normal. And as the rabbit turned around, Tewi's mood changed from satisfaction over a prank well done to overwhelming fear.

Reisen's eyes were glowing, and a shadow was lying over her face. No sign of the normal Reisen was there. This was made even more clear when Reisen opened her mouth.

"_**What? Go back so that she can punish me for some stupid fucking reason again?**_" Her voice was as cold as ice and as dark as the night. "_**You'd like that, wouldn't you? Always getting away with everything...**_"

She grabbed Tewi's carrot necklace and pulled the earth rabbit's face so close to her own that their noses nearly touched each other. Now, Tewi had no choice but to look right into Reisen's furois eyes.

"_**Listen up, you little sadistic prick. I've just had enough of all your little pranks. You just love being the favorite, don't you? Doing nothing but stupid pranks all day. Well, too bad for you now, because I'm leaving and I won't come back, so you'll just have to pull your little pranks on someone else. Like Master. Let's see how you'll like it then, little miss Favorite, when you've gotten a taste of her fury.**_"

She let go of Tewi's necklace, turned around and walked away.

Tewi was so scared that se was completely unable to move. Sweat gushed from her face, tears started to form in her eyes and her legs were shaking violently until they couldn't bear her any longer. She sank down on her knees, still staring after Reisen.

Reisen had ran away from home once, but back then she had been retrieved by Eirin and punished so hard that she was unconsious for three weeks.

This time, however, Tewi realized that maybe Reisen was serious this time. Maybe she really had planned to not come back...

_So, that's the first chapter. I hope it was good. (Even if the idea is a little bit stupid)_

_One of my OC's will appear in the next chapter, just to be clear. It'd feel like an overdose to introduce my OC's right away, you see...Okay, i nag too freaking much about my fan characters now! See you next chapter! (Of either this or The Kappa and the Wolf...)_


	2. Chapter 2: Encounter With The Eagle

_...I think I made the first chapter a little more serious than I intended it to be...darn. V_V'_

_Okay, so I overexaggerated a little. Probably a little more than necessary. (Damn, Omega was right: This became crackier than I intended) _

_Oh well. Can't change that now. And I guess it's okay to write these kinds of stories sometimes. Just for experimenting...(lie)_

_Either way, don't be fooled by the first chapter: This is a story **not** intended to be taken seriously. So even if it seems like I want it that way, I don't._

_And I'm still looking for ideas for chapter 3 of The Kappa And The Wolf. As soon as I've got an idea, I'll write it._

_So, with that out of the way, here's chapter 2._

**DISCLAIMER: **_Touhou Project and most of the characters that appear in this story belong to Team Shanghai Alice/ZUN._

_Hakame Sekoreta and his Spell Cards belong to me._

* * *

**Chapter 2: Encounter With the Eagle**

About 30 minutes had passed since Reisen snapped and left Eientei, but it felt like ages for the Moon Rabbit. She sat in a small cave that she had found while walking through the bamboo forest. She was not as mad anymore, but she was still in a really bad mood. She sighed as she scratched her cheek.

"And so, things have come down to this..." She mumbled. "Uuuh, how stupid of me to lose my cool like that. I was in hiding there, after all. Now what do I do?"

She thought about how upset everyone at Eientei was at the moment after her burst of anger. The rabbits, Tewi, the princess, Eirin...

Suddenly, she felt regretful. (A little perk she had due to her normally obedient nature)

"Aaah! What have I done?" She wailed, rubbing her head with her knuckles. "Master, forgive meeee...!"

She did that for about 5 minutes.

Then, her feeling of regret disappeared. She stopped moving and thought about the situation.

"_Wait a minute...Why should I regret this? It's Master's and Tewi's fault that this happened. It had to happen sooner or later..._"

She clenched her fist and a little smirk formed on her lips.

"I said I wouldn't be coming back, and I am going to keep what I said!" She said to herself. "I will not let them punish me for this! They only have themselves to blame! Besides, this means a lot of free time for me. I haven't had that in a while now."

The rabbit felt a little triumphant. Almost happy, in fact. But she also felt very tired. Being angry takes a lot of energy, especially since she hadn't been that furious in years.

"I'm going to take a short nap. Then, I'll figure out what to do with my new free time!" She mumbled and yawned.

Deciding that, she leaned her back towards the cliff's wall and immideatly fell asleep.

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(_Meanwhile, back at Eientei..._)

"I see..." Kaguya said thoughtfully and looked at her friend with concern. "You were punishing Reisen for dropping important medicine, and she suddenly burst into a rage..."

She had let Eirin explain the situation over a cup of tea and some snacks.

"I have never, ever seen her like that before." The genious mumbled while biting her index finger. "Maybe it was a side effect from the medicine I gave her..."

"Eirin, maybe you should consider trying you medicines on something else." Kaguya suggested while munching on a rice cracker. "Well, you probably will have to now, since Reisen ran away."

"Don't worry, princess." Eirin said and shrugged. "I sent Inaba after her. They are both rabbits, so they should be able to understand each other in situations like this. Trust me, she will come back. And when she does..."

A smile spread on her face, if an insecure one.

"...I will punish her for her insolence~"

"But Eirin, it's the punishments that made her run away in the first place..."

The princess interrupted herself when she heard the door open.

"Oh! Are they back?" She commented.

"Took them long enough." Eirin sighed as she slowly stood up and walked towards the hallway.

While she had said that he would punish Reisen for this, she still didn't feel very good about the situation. She wasn't scared or anything, but something just felt wrong.

Of course, she wouldn't let Kaguya know that. Making the princess worry was unnecessary. (Not that she probably would, but you never know...)

She took her time, walking towards the door. What she found made her frown in surprise.

In front of the door, Tewi stood. Her fists were clenched, she was shaking slightly and she looked down on her own feet.

"...Inaba?" Eirin called out to her.

She walked up to the Earth Rabbit and slowly put her hand on her shoulder.

"How are you...? Look at me!"

She put her hand on both sides of Tewi's head and lifted it.

The look Tewi gave her surprised her even more.

Her eyes were wide open and her face was pretty pale. She was nervous, if not frightened, that was for sure.

After a moment of silence, Tewi opened her mouth.

"...I found Reisen..." She said slowly. "...I think she really won't come back, Master..."

Eirin let go of Tewi's head and watched her walk down the hall.

She was really concerned now.

"This is not good! If she even made Inaba that upset..." She mumbled.

As she closed the door, she thought:

"_Hmmm...Trying to get her to come back now wouldn't work. I'll go look for her later. Maybe she's calmed down by then._"

She walked back towards the room where Kaguya was.

"_...Maybe I'll go a bit easier on her when she gets back..."_

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(_Okay, back to Reisen now._)

"Heya, big sister rabbit!"

Reisen suddenly woke up. Her nap was interrupted by a cheerful voice. Unfortunately, this made her a bit grumpy.

"_Ugh! Who's disturbing me while I'm napping? Whoever it is will..._" She thought while opening her eyes.

When she looked up, she found herself looking into a pair of dark blue eyes, sparkling with curiosity.

The eyes belonged to a young boy with short brown-blonde hair. He had a scar over his right eye and two smaller scars on his left cheek. He peeked down at her from above the opening to the cave.

"Who are you? What are you doing in this cave?" He continued, still sounding cheerful.

Apparently, he didn't notice that Reisen really wasn't in the mood for meeting anyone at the moment.

"Back at you." She mumbled with an annoyed tone in her voice. "Who are _you_, and what are _you_ doing in this bamboo forest?"

The boy, seeming a bit nervous after hearing Reisen's toned of voice, smiled and said:

"Ah- I've got some free time, and I saw this bamboo forest and went in to explore it. But, I got lost..."

Reisen sighed. Another lost brat! A lot of stupid humans sometimes went into the forest and got themselves lost. Frankly, she didn't feel like helping the kid. Besides, that was the immortal's "job", not hers.

"Idiot! Don't you know that this place is dangerous? If you go to far in-Wha?"

She interrupted her sentence in surprise as the boy slid down from the cave opening, turned in the air and landed on his feet.

It would've looked nice if his balance wasn't off. After landing, he immediatly fell forwards and smacked his face into the cave floor.

"Augh!" He yelped. "That hurt!"

He sat up and rubbed his nose while frowning in pain. This made Reisen get a better look at him.

He wore a white shirt with elbow- length sleeves and a blue buttoned vest with fur around the neck. He had brown shoes and green shorts that were folded and buttoned on the front side of his legs. (If the folds were unbuttoned, his shorts would be wider) On his back, he had eagle wings and, unlike most bird youkai, a tail in the same color as his hair. He also seemed to be carrying a sword in a belt.

Reisen stared at the bird youkai in silence. There was a detail that bugged her.

"...You have wings. Why didn't you just fly out of the forest?" She asked.

The eagle stopped rubbing his nose and looked up at her.

"Simple. I didn't think about it."

Reisen facepalmed. At least he was honest, but seriously...!

"Even so...", he continued, "_if_ I had thought about it, this forest makes me dizzy. Flying gets wobbly."

"Ah- Yeah. Right. Nearly forgot about that. This place has that effect on people. The bamboo grows in a way that makes it easy to lose your way. And your balance."

Reisen got up and stretched.

"So," she continued, "you still haven't answered my first question. Who are you? I haven't seen you before."

The boy got up, as well, and brushed off his clothes.

"Well, that might be because I'm not usually down here on the surface." He replied. "My name is Hakame Sekoreta. Nice to meet you, sister rabbit!"

"_Too bad I can't say the same about you..._" Reisen thought. She just wished that he would go away. She just wanted to be alone until she was in a better mood.

Like earlier, Hakame didn't really sense that. Having not read the mood, he idly tried to converse with the Moon Rabbit, who didn't really give him much of an answer to anything. Also, his willingness to chat somewhat annoyed her. She fingered on a Spell Card in her pocket.

"_...He said something about not being on the surface too much._" She thought. "_And he's not very old. Maybe he hasn't been introduced to danmaku yet? If so, perhaps I could scare him off..._"

She considered her decision for a second.

"_...I could try. It's not like he'll get hurt or anything. Hopefully, he'll get scared and go away. I'll just use my easiest Spell._"

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"...Sister Rabbit? You've been awfully quiet..." The eagle said. "What's wro-"

" Wave Sign [Mind Shaker]"

"Woah!"

The barriage of bullets that Reisen fired surprised Hakame, to say the least. He leapt backwards out of the cave, up in the air, just barely grazing a few bullets, both fake and illusionary. Reisen noticed that his flying was indeed wobbly, and he seemed pretty unsteady. Perhaps the illusions had put him out of balance.

But instead of her desired reaction, he smiled.

"Wow! You know danmaku?" He exclaimed. "And you shoot them out of your fingers! That's so cool!"

He stuck a hand in his pocket and pulled out two wooden dice.

"I take that as a challenge! I'm new to this, but I'll try my best. Hopefully, I won't dissappoint!"

"Damn it..." Reisen mumbled.

This was not the outcome she had wanted. She just wanted to be left alone, and now she was about to engage in a danmaku battle!

"_Ugh! I'll just use a harder Spell Card. If he's a novice, he won't be able to avoid it!_"

"Alright, since you've shot first, I'll shoot now!" Hakame said and threw the dice into the air.

He caught them, looked at them and made his move.

"So that's it! Cloud Sign [Earth Cape]"

A few small, grey clouds emerged from his hands and spread out from him as he started spreading small grey and blue bullets. As he pulled the sword out of his belt (Which had an odd saw-like pattern on the edge) and swung it above his head, the clouds started shooting bigger danmaku that spread out amongst the smaller ones until they dissolved into danmaku, as well.

Unfortunately (?), since he was inexperienced in danmaku, the danmaku pattern was ridiculously easy to dodge. With a few hops and jumps, Reisen had dodged them all.

"Hm! Irregular, but predictable. Could use some practice." She sighed and shrugged. "I mean, loads of it. You've got miles to go, kid."

She was about to declare her second Spell Card when she noticed a change of expression in Hakame's face. He looked angry and frustrated.

"Grrr! Don't make fun of me!" He yelled as he threw the dice again. "Let's try that again!"

"Evening Veil [Silk Snake]"

Suddenly, a thick mist spread out from him and surrounded Reisen. When she was in the mist, grey danmaku started firing at her from different places in the mist. Of course, the pattern was still easy and she dodged it without any bigger problems, but since it came out from the thick mist, it was a bit harder to determine from which direction they were going to come from.

Suddenly, she heard something behind her and turned around. She was met by Hakame, who charged at her with his sword raised.

Of course, all she had to do was take a step aside. As expected, the eagle missed her.

"Hey!" He growled as he turned around. "No fair!"

"No fair?" Reisen replied. "I wouldn't exactly call hiding in the mist "fair" either."

"Oh, now you're going to-" Hakame started, but he never finished his sentence.

The reason?

"Visionary Wave [Mind Blowing]"

"Gyaaaah!"

ZAP!

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The mist cleared up, revealing a defeated young youkai lying on the ground. Being so close to Reisen, he hadn't managed to dodge her danmaku. Reisen shook her head as she looked at him. She was very unimpressed.

"I only had to use two Spell Cards." She sighed. "You really need to work on your danmaku. And your dodging."

"Ugyuuu~ Drat~" Hakame mumbled, clenching his fists.

"While I'm on the training subject, you should work on your sword handling, too." Reisen continued. "It's dangerous to flail it around like that."

"I know that." The eagle winced. "I'm just a knight apprentice~"

Then, his mood seemed to change again. (Children are so unpredictable...)

He got up, brushed off his vest and looked at Reisen. His eyes were gleaming.

"...That was amazing, though!" He said with wonder in his voice. "You're really good at this, sister rabbit! Ah-"

He noticed that Reisen was walking away and flew after her.

"Hey, where are you going?" He asked.

"That is not a concern of yours." Reisen stated.

"Can I come with you?"

"No."

"Why not?"

Reisen turned to face the eagle. She was tired of him bothering her.

"What is it that you don't understand!" She growled. "I want to be left alone! You disturbed me in the cave, so I tried to scare you off, okay? I have no business with nosy brats like you! I beat you in the danmaku game! Now **scram**!"

A moment of silence fell between the two youkai. Hakame's eyes were widened in surprise. Reisen glared at him. If she had wanted, she could've made him insane, but she had a feeling that he only would've been more of a bother if she did.

Her glaring changed to a look of surprise when she heard that the boy started sobbing. His eyes started watering.

"Ugyuu~"

"Ah- No! Don't cry! Please don't cry!" Reisen stuttered, flailing her arms. She couldn't stand crying children. She looked around in distress for a while.

"...Hey, kid! You were lost, right? I- I'll guide you out of the forest, okay? So stop crying, okay?"

Hakame looked up at her. His eyes were still shiny from trying to prevent the tears.

"...Really?"

"Yes, yes! I'll help you out. So please don't cry."

Hakame wiped his face, nodded and flew after her.

Reisen took a small breath of relief.

"_Good thing he stopped. Though I have a feeling that I'll regret helping him..._" She thought as she continued walking through the forest.

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_So, that was chapter 2. I hope it wasn't boring!_

_So, Hakame is about 25 years old (Mind you, he's young for a youkai), and he can manipulate clouds and mist, obviously. The reason I gave him dice instead of Spell Cards is because I think that children can be unpredictable, just like a dice can be unpredictable. So I thought if would be funny if he just randomized his spells. (Though he never gets two of the same spell in a row) _

_I also tried to make him as less of a Mary Sue as possible. I hope it worked._

_And no, he's not a crybaby. It's just a spontaneous reaction that happens if an adult yells at him specifically._

_(I just noticed that his last name sounds like Securitas. Fitting, since he's a knight apprentice. XD And I know that his name sounds similar to Hatate, but that's a coincidence. I made him before Double Spoiler was released)_

_See you next chapter!_


	3. Chapter 3: Of Birds and Wasps?

_...And so I rise from the dead._

_No, seriously, sorry about no updates for a few months, but my inactivity mainly stems from being busy and having no idea/inspiration to write. But I might have an idea now, so here's chapter 3. And Lame Title Syndrome strikes again. Huzzah...(It's a curse, I tell you!)_

_If I still made this too serious, try reading it while playing Groose's Theme in the background. It apparently goes with everything..._

_Oh yeah, I have no idea if Eirin is aware of Tewi's pranks in canon, but logically, she would be, so let's go with that. (I can't write too much based on the stories in IoTM&IoTE, after all. They might not be canon)_

**DISCLAIMER:**_Touhou Project and its characters belongs to ZUN/Team Shanghai Alice_

_Hakame and Sophie and their Spell Cards belong to me._

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**Chapter 3: Of Birds and...Wasps?**

"That was scary!" Tewi mumbled while nibbling on a rice cracker.

About 15 minutes has passed since the Earth Rabbit returned to Eientei, and the pharmacist and the moon princess had finally managed to calm her down.

"So, from the way she responded, we can at least be certain that she won't come back here for a while." Kaguya stated.

"Most likely." Eirin responded. "I guess I've been a bit mean to her lately..."

"Probably." Tewi chimed in. "Anyone could go crazy after that kind of treatment."

"Are you one to talk, hypocrite?" Eirin smirked. "You've been pretty nasty to her, too, what with all the pranks you've been pulling on her."

"I don't know what you're talking about~" Tewi said innocently, but she squirmed a little in her seat and didn't look the genius in the eye.

"Lying rabbit." She snickered.

Kaguya studied her friend and her ally while having a sip of tea.

"_Woah. The mood suddenly changed._" She thought. "_What happened to the depressing atmosphere?_"

She cleared her throat.

"In any case, maybe we should let Reisen be for a while. Let her clear her thoughts, you know? She might come back when she's calmed down a little."

Eirin and Tewi looked up.

"Ah...Yeah. Let's hope for that." They replied at the same time.

Kaguya nodded, thoughtfully placed her chin in her palm and sighed.

"That child needs some time on her own, as well. Though I might start to miss teasing her a little while she's gone..."

"P- Princess..."

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..

..

Reisen was lost in thought. If one has seen her, they might've thought that she wasn't even aware that she was walking. And technically, she wasn't. She just mechanically put one foot ahead of the other.

She was thinking about that she has no idea where she was going to go next. She hadn't really had time to plan what she was going to do because she had been distracted before she could do so.

"Wow! What's that called? And what's that? Can you use that for anything?"

The distraction in question occasionally pulled her out of her thoughts; The eagle boy, whom she has met in the Bamboo Forest, was ecstatically flying around her in circles and loops, pointing and asking about everything he saw, apparently not really caring anymore about whether or not he got an answer.

"_Uuuuh, I really should've thought this through._" Reisen thought. "_Just mindlessly going in any __direction doesn't seem to be the best course of action. Why didn't I make a plan on what I should do next!_"

_(Somewhere, in the Outside World, the author sneezed.)_

Her attention turned to Hakame and his running mouth again. Something was bothering her again...

"Stop."

The Moon Rabbit suddenly raised her hand just as the bird was about to ask another question, but quickly silenced himself.

"Before you ask another question, I have a question for you." She calmly stated.

"Oh. What is it, sister ra-"

"Inaba."

"Excuse me?"

"My name is Reisen Udongein Inaba, but just call me Inaba." Reisen sighed.

"Ah, ok..." Hakame replied. "Miss Inaba, what do you want to ask?"

"Why are you still following me?"

"What?"

"I helped you out of the forest, but you've been following me for the last 15 minutes now." Reisen said. "What do you want, really?"

Hakame politely smiled back at her.

"Didn't I tell you? I got some free time, and with permission from my masters, I was allowed to explore the surface on my own. The best experiences come from discovering things on your own, they say."

"But I told you that you can't come with me!" Reisen replied, sturdily without sounding annoyed. "And stop swinging your sword around like that! You can poke someone's eye out!"

"But I have to practice!"  
"You won't get any better if your technique is wrong."

Hakame stared at his sword with dismay.

"But I know how it's really done, and if I study my own technique, I might get better when I see what I do wrong."

"...It really doesn't work that way, but whatever." Reisen replied and shrugged. "Anyway, please stop following me around. You can't come with me."

Hakame closed his mouth. For a while, he looked very thoughtful.

Then, a smile slowly spread on his face as he suddenly looked like he got a stroke of genius.

"But what if I'm not following you?"

Reisen got a look of slight shock on her face.

"...eh?"

Hakame triumphantly folded his arms together with a proud smirk on his lips.

"What if I'm simply heading in the same direction as you? I'm not following you, I just happen to travel on the same road as you."

Reisen didn't know how to respond to that. She wasn't sure whether or not this really was a slight stroke of genius or a logical fallacy.

She grunted disapprovingly, sighed and put her hands on her hips.

"...Even if I said that I don't believe you, you would stick to your explanation, wouldn't you?" She remarked.

"Pretty much." Hakame grinned.

"Uuuh..." Reisen groaned. "Fine. Keep doing whatever you said you're doing. But just remember, if you travel in my direction for too long, I'm just going to assume (know for sure) that you're following me and try to shake you off. (Maybe)"

The eagle threw his hands up in triumph.

"Yay! Success! Ah..."

Suddenly, he seemed to have caught himself in his victory act and cleared his throat.

"Errhm, I mean, I'm glad we've come to an understanding."

"_Well, t__hat facade didn't hold for long..._" Reisen thought and snickered quietly.

...

...

...

After walking for a while, Reisen started to pay more attention to her surroundings. She looked around and noticed that she was walking through a vast field, full of various wildflowers. She saw everything from azaleas to peonies and even several wild herbs.

"...I've never really noticed this flower field before." She remarked to herself. "Maybe because I don't usually take this route when leaving home."

"Ah! These are the Blossom Plains." Hakame responded. "Whenever I've visited the surface with my masters, we've usually ended up here. Loads of fairies and insect youkai really like this place. My home is around these parts if you just go upwards for a while."

"...I didn't really ask for an answer." Reisen politely remarked.

"Sorry."

"Eh, don't worry about it."

"Oh, and my masters told me that a lot of the herbs around here, while fairly hard to find, can apparently be used for cooking and medica-Gyaah!"  
***PICHU****N***

Suddenly, something truck Hakame in the back of the head, and he tumbled face- down into the flower field.

"Ah! What happened?" Reisen exclaimed in surprise.

***SWISH***

Something blew right past her ear and struck the ground next to her. As she got a closer look at the object, she frowned in a mix of confusion and surprise.

It was a big stinger.

"What the..." She mumbled. "What kind of creature would fire these things?"

"Ugyuu~ I went *pichun* again ~" Hakame sobbed, his face still planted into the ground.

Reisen got down on her knees next to the eagle.

"...Are you okay? If you want to become a knight, you really need sharp intuition and top senses. I think you need to work a bit on those."

"...But you didn't notice them, either!"  
"Well, I'm not a knight, so... Anyway, what would shoot a stinger that big? A mutant bee?"

"...Close enough" Hakame responded and lifted his head.  
"Hey~! You over there!"

Reisen looked up.

A small girl was staring at them. She wore a yellow- and black- striped dress with a bell- shaped skirt and a white short- sleeved shirt under. She had blonde hair, fixed with blue ribbons in one ponytail on her left side and one ponytail on the top of her head, and purple eyes. On her feet, she wore white stockings and simple black shoes. She had a belt around her waist, a bell necklace around her neck and a blue ribbon wrapped around her right arm. She had two small antennea on her head and transparent wings on her back.

Her arms were crossed over her chest and she looked very annoyed.

"I shoot stingers at you, and you still ignore me! How rude!"

Reisen raised an eyebrow. Who was the rude one here? Firing stingers at people apparently wasn't rude to the insect.

"...Close enough, eh?" She mumbled. "So, you've encountered her before.?"  
"Every time I've visited the surface." Hakame responded and rubbed the back of his head. "A wasp youkai. Her name is Sophie, self- proclaimed boss of these fields."

"Ha! So you've heard of me, bird!" The wasp exclaimed. "The knowledge of my greatness must've finally spread!"

Reisen looked puzzled.

"Every time? She doesn't seem to remember you." She remarked to Hakame.

"She's not very smart, to say the least." The eagle responded. "Or strong."

"Well, typical for an insect, I suppose." Reisen remarked and shrugged.

"Grrr! Stop ignoring me! Stinger Sign [Wasp Hoard]" Sophie yelled and fired several stingers and grey danmaku towards the moon rabbit, who just jumped out of the way.

"Hey now, is that what you call a greeting?" She asked.

Sophie pointed an accusatory finger at the rabbit.

"Greeting intruders? Forget it! Nobody looks at my flowers for free! Now, face the consequences!"

"But we were just pass-"  
"I challenge you to a game of danmaku!"

Reisen looked at the insect. For a while, they seemed to be exchanging looks with each other.

Eventually, the moon rabbit opened her mouth.

"...Denied."

The unexpected response made Sophie fall forwards.

"Eh, what?"

"I said denied." Reisen said again.

"But- but why?" Sophie stuttered.

"For one, your introduction was really long, almost unneccessarily so. (4 paragraphs? Come on! _I'm_ the main character here!) I'm very tired and not in the mood for any danmaku. Also, do we honestly have to have a danmaku battle every single time we meet someone new? Is it some kind of unwritten rule of Gensokyo?"

Sophie stared at Reisen in silence with a puzzled expression. The moon rabbit then turned around and started walking away, with Hakame flying next to her.

The wasp stared after them for a while before she came to her senses again.

"Ah! Hey, hey, hey! You can't just drop it like that!" She yelled. "Come back here, you coward! Wasp Sign [Sti-"

She never finished declaring her Spell Card.

"Kyaaaah!"

***PICHU~N***

She fell to the ground, her legs twitching slightly. Reisen had fired a danmaku bullet, and it had hit Sophie right in the forehead.

"I told you I don't want to battle!" She responded with a tone of annoyance. "But I just fired a bullet anyway. There's your match. I won."

The wasp got up to her feet and brushed her clothes. She was shaking, and her eyes were tearing up out of anger.

"Uuuuuuh~! You stupid meanie!" She exclaimed and stomped her foot in the ground. "That does it! I'm going to follow you and find a weak spot! Then, whenever you least expect it; Bam! I'll defeat you! (I've always wanted to go exploring outside of these fields, anyway)"

"_Oh, for the love of-_" Reisen thought and rubbed her eyes.

"No, please don't do that." She mumbled.

"Silence! You're not the boss of me! I do what I want!" Sophie growled.

"As I said, she's a bit dim and very stubborn." Hakame whispered to Reisen.

"Shut up, bird! You were saying something bad about me, weren't you? I'll show you!" The insect girl yelled and threw herself up in the air at Hakame.

"Ah- ow! Ouch! OUCH! M- my wings! Stop pulling in my- OW! Don't touch my tail!"

Reisen looked at them and sighed. As long as they were bothering each other, she probably could at least tolerate them.

She looked up at the sky. It was a now a very light shade of purple, and the sun was on its way down.

"_Hmm. I'm going to have to stop for the night soon..._" She thought.

But where would that be? Several suitable locations to spend the night popped up in her head as she kept walking.

"_Well, I guess I'll just have to wait and see._" She figured and yawned. "_Whichever location comes first, I welcome it._"

* * *

_And that's chapter 3. I hope you liked it!_

_So, Sophie is pretty stupid and mischiveous, as you might figure, and she can manipulate stingers. It is a fairly stupid and useless ability, but I was out of ideas and I thought it was funny. I hope I didn't make her a Mary Sue. But if you find her annoying anyway, she pretty much is meant to be, so my job here is done in that case._

_Anyway, please leave a comment and some criticism is always appreciated._

_See you next chapter! It won't take as long next time! (I hope)_


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